The report by a researcher from the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, compares statistics at Swiss and European level.
The gun suicide rate is higher among the Swiss compared to other European countries, possibly because conscripts keep guns at home, a report published in the journal Swiss Medical Weekly points out.
The report by a researcher from the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, compares statistics at Swiss and European level. It is based mainly on a comparative study of suicide methods in Europe, according to which 1/3 of male suicides in Switzerland involved firearms, when in the rest of the European countries this figure is 9.7%.
“Possibly, the reason for this disparity is the easy access that the Swiss have to firearms,” ​​because conscripts keep guns at home, he explains in his conclusions.
Home storage of military weapons is in a sense part of Switzerland’s defense doctrine based on the ability to immediately recruit thousands of reservists, who don the khaki again for a few weeks each year as part of military training.
The researcher points out that the reduction in the number of reservists since 2003 has since led to a reduction of about 20% in the number of weapons distributed by the Swiss army, and at the same time to a noticeable decline in the rate of suicides with firearms.
“An analysis of firearm suicide rates before and after the reform showed that the rate for men (but not for women) fell by 8%, without substitution by other methods of suicide,” he adds.
The researcher also cites American studies that have shown that having a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide, among other things.
In Switzerland, a country where shooting incidents are rare, gun ownership is widespread due to conscripts keeping guns at home. According to the Geneva-based research center Small Arms Survey, in 2017 more than 2.3 million guns were kept in homes — that’s almost three for every 10 residents — making Switzerland the 16th most firearms country in the world weapons compared to their population.
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